Biden pauses at Virginia Tech memorial

Vice President Joe Biden made an unannounced stop on the Virginia Tech campus to pay tribute to the students killed there in a mass shooting in 2007.

Asked by POLITICO's Jonathan Martin what the memorial meant to him, Biden seemed to recall the death of his first wife Neilia Hunter and one-year old daughter.

"It means," Biden said, pausing. "I’ll tell you what it means. It means to me that – it reminds you how precious life is. And that – you know I think of those kids, but I also think of their parents. No child should predecease their parents. I remember what it’s like."

"It brings back ... It brings back memories. Whether it’s that call, out of the blue that you get, and it’s like how could this happen," Biden said.

Asked by reporters about the more spate of high-profile recent shootings, Biden declined to weigh in.

Biden was on the Virginia Tech campus for a speech when he stopped at the memorial — 32 individual stones with the name of the victims, and a plaque that reads "We will prevail. We are Virginia Tech."